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A New York Times reporter sparked controversy this week after suggesting in an article that President-elect Trump’s nominee to head the Office of Management and Budget, Russell T. Vough, helped promote a “unitary executive theory” ahead of Trump’s second term.
It drew sharp criticism on social media and among conservative analysts who argued that the description of the theory was fundamentally false.
The report in question by Alan Rappeport focused on Vought’s nomination to lead the OMB during Trump’s second presidency, a post he also held during Trump’s first term, and the work Vought did after Trump left the charge
In the years after Trump’s first term, the Times report says, Vought founded a conservative think tank and served as an architect of Project 2025, described in the report as an effort by conservative groups to help advance in the executive branch.
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Home of the New York Times publication (Alexandra Schuler/Photo Alliance via Getty Images)
The report says Project 2025’s legal basis is “a maximalist version of the so-called unitary executive theory that rejects the idea that government is made up of three separate branches” and “argues that presidential power over federal agencies is absolute “.
Although the article has since been updated to describe the unitary executive theory as three “separate but equal branches,” the article was criticized by conservatives and others who disagreed with the characterization of the Times legal theory.
The White House in Washington, DC (Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
It was the second part of the statement in particular that drew a backlash from conservative commentators, including National Review editor Charles Cooke, who argued in an op-ed that the Constitution and its wording, according to their opinion, they are explicit about how the executive and the legislature. and the judiciary can exercise power and over the limitations of the executive branch.
“The United States is a democratic republic in which elected officials are accountable for their decisions,” Cooke wrote in an article for the National Review.
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Russ Vought, former director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, speaks during a panel discussion at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida, on February 28, 2021. (Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“The only elected official who holds power within the executive branch is the president. For anyone else to exercise power without the permission or endorsement of the only elected official would be to create a fourth branch of government, detached from oversight , and therefore undermine the whole apparatus”.
Others also took aim at the article on social media, arguing that the Times reporter fundamentally misunderstood unitary executive theory.
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“This is bad, even for the New York Times,” Iowa law professor Andy Grewal wrote in a widely shared post to X
The New York Times did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
